Activated Patients Lower Healthcare Costs, Achieve Better Outcomes With Kryptiq's Patient Portal
Kryptiq customers are using Patient Portal to activate care with their patients and engage them at a higher level, resulting in better patient care outcomes and lower costs.
According to John Moore of Chilmark Research, patient engagement is one of the top trends for 2012.
"As the industry migrates to reimbursement models based on outcomes and providers take on more risk, it will become increasingly important to truly engage the patient and their loved ones as part of the care team," said Chilmark's Moore. "Also, in highly competitive markets, providers will be seeking new approaches to not only engage consumers, but build loyalty."
Kryptiq's Patient Portal allows patients to access their health data easily and securely, 24-hours a day, in turn allowing them to take an active role in their care. This concept is the backbone of healthcare initiatives such as Meaningful Use, the patient centered medical home (PCMH), health information exchanges (HIEs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs).
Heart and Vascular Center of Arizona and Dr. Christopher Beal in Michigan have used Kryptiq's Patient Portal to actively engage patients in their care and have seen the benefits first hand.
Portal Technology Gives Chronic Patients Real-Time Access to Providers
Practices have reported to Kryptiq that using the Patient Portal can save $1.75 per patient message and $.45 per phone call in staff salary. And for one patient at Heart and Vascular Center of Arizona (HVCA), the benefit is priceless.
HVCA patient and travel photographer Phil Douglis has taken Coumadin since 2001 to allow for thinner blood to pass through his artificial heart valve. After a blood vessel ruptured in his brain in 2009, the Coumadin made his blood too thin to clot and be absorbed back into his body, causing a life-threatening pool of blood to form between his brain and skull.
After a successful recovery, his doctors ordered weekly blood testing, using a home monitoring device so they could prevent any complications from the blood thinner. He was required to call the results into his doctor's office weekly.
For Douglis, that was very bad news. He travels several months out of the year to teach others the art of capturing human emotion on film. That includes travel to everywhere from Tokyo to Ecuador. Phone calls to give his blood level results would be nearly impossible to maintain, which means he would have to choose between his passion and getting accurate, timely results to his doctors.
Around this time, Douglis became a patient at Heart and Vascular Center of Arizona in his hometown of Phoenix. On his first appointment he learned the practice uses Kryptiq's Patient Portal in conjunction with their GE Centricity EHR. The Portal allows patients and physicians to exchange secure messages electronically and also gives patients access to their medical record.
Imagine his delight when he learned his adventures would not need to be interrupted after all. He could now send his blood level results to his doctor's office any time of day and receive instructions on how to change his medication dosage without having to be by a phone. With easy-to-use forms and integrated secure messaging, providing his care team with his test results would be a breeze.
"Patient portal was the answer to all of these problems," Douglis said. "Having the ability to report my results through a secure online portal, no matter what time zone I'm in or if there's a phone available, is amazing. My doctor's office can get back to me with instructions just as easily, with no phone tag or me having to be in a cell reception area to receive them. They are there when I need them, and that has given me my freedom back."
Barb Watkins, HVCA Administrator, said that a large percentage of the practice's patients use the Kryptiq Patient Portal.
"The number one incentive for patients who use the portal is to avoid being on hold," Watkins said. "They can correspond quickly and conveniently. And they don't have to remember everything they discussed with the care team because it's all in writing and accessible at any time."
Watkins also said they've seen higher efficiencies and cost savings thanks to Patient Portal and other Kryptiq technologies. Front office staff can respond more quickly to patient requests. Releasing medical records is a snap and saves the practice huge amounts in postage, printing and staff time.
Kryptiq's Portal also increases efficiency in the collection of patient health history information.
"The patient fills out the form in the portal and, when received by secure message, the information is imported directly into the patient's chart and is ready for physician review at the time of the appointment," Watkins remarked.
Integrated Health IT Powers PCMH Success
More and more practices are looking to the patient centered medical home model to help them improve the care of their patients. MGMA recently released a study that found nearly 70 percent of practices are interested in, or are in the process of, transforming into a patient centered medical home.
Physicians, hospital networks, and patients are participating in this model of care as a way to improve care quality and reduce errors and costs. The PCMH model embodies the benefits of activating patient care, requiring patients and care teams to work together to proactively manage care.
Dr. Christopher Beal discovered just how valuable his integrated health IT could be when his three-physician Michigan practice made the transition to a PCMH model in 2011. Their practice implemented an EMR in 2005 and he became an immediate proponent of technology's role in a successful and care-oriented practice. But it wasn't until he combined his passion for the technology with his desire to improve a broken healthcare system that everything fell into place.
One of the keys to his success: Kryptiq's Patient Portal and ePrescribing.
"Moving to a PCMH model allowed our EHR and integrated patient portal, eRX and disease management software to kick into high gear," he said. "We could now apply real care-improvement goals, track the progress of our patients, and empower our office to provide proactive, rather than reactive, care."
The Patient Portal has been extremely popular with patients, encouraging them to interact with their care team.
"We saw a 28 percent adoption of the Kryptiq Patient Portal in just over eight weeks," Dr. Beal said. "Patients are bragging to others about how great it is. When a patient sees us at 7:30 a.m. for a blood draw, and we have their results to them via the portal by noon, they are thrilled."
Within just one year, he has seen a decrease in emergency room utilization, and decreases in the high costs of labs and x-rays.
"The US spends the most on healthcare costs, and yet we see some of the poorest results," he said. "Relying on paper forms and paper data is not what will transform our system, it's providing higher quality care at lower costs. This model, with this technology, is what will make a difference."
Next up for Dr. Beal: he's looking to join the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange, as Region Health Information Organization (RHIO). His ideal vision for the future would be for the entire state of Michigan to use the Surescripts Network, powered by Kryptiq, to connect all of the practices in Michigan together so that patient information can be seamlessly and securely shared between active providers.
Looking Ahead
Now in its 10th year of providing patient engagement software, Kryptiq is working with customers to support many new models of care in 2012. Beyond existing standards, such as HIE or the Direct Project, customers are using Kryptiq's Patient Portal to activate patient data exchange and meet their real world business needs and care challenges.
About Kryptiq Corporation
Kryptiq creates software components for physicians and their staff to activate and mobilize health data. Kryptiq's affordable, pragmatic tools help healthcare organizations increase revenue capture, improve efficiency, and measure and enhance patient services.
More than 40,000 providers use Kryptiq's software to seamlessly integrate with other HIT systems such as EHR, practice management systems, HIEs and more. Kryptiq's software includes secure messaging, automated clinical messaging, patient portal, ePrescribing, patient revenue capture and document management. For more information, visit www.kryptiq.com.
SOURCE: Kryptiq Corporation